Image 01 Image 03

Author: Vijeta Uniyal

Profile photo

Vijeta Uniyal

Vijeta Uniyal is a writer based in Germany. He is Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Gatestone Institute and founder of the "Indians For Israel".

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants the United States to lead an international alliance to build a 5G telecommunications network overcoming the West's dependence on China. "The government has approached Washington about a 'D10' club of democratic partners, based on the G7 plus Australia, South Korea and India," British newspaper The Times reported Friday. 

German Chancellor 'rebuffed' U.S. President Donald Trump's invitation to attend next month's G7 Summit, the German media reports. "As of today, considering the overall pandemic situation, she cannot agree to her personal participation on a trip to Washington," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Friday.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has notified Congress that the United States no longer considers Hong Kong autonomous from Communist China, paving the way for Washington to revoke the specialized trade and financial status it enjoys since coming under Beijing's rule in 1997.

Given recent developments following the outbreak of Wuhan coronavirus, the era of China being the go-to manufacturing destination for the U.S. companies appears to be coming to an end. The United States seeks to decouple its economy from Communist China in a post-coronavirus scenario, media reports say. Washington wants to empower India and other Indo-Pacific allies to replace manufacturing supply chains running through China.

The border tensions between China and India have escalated once again, after hundreds of Chinese troops crossed into Indian territory. Soldiers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) breached the Indian border at multiple locations in the northern Himalayan region of Ladakh, Indian media reports said on Saturday.

China is running a massive surveillance network in Africa, reveals a new report published by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The intelligence gathering operation was most likely run through State-owned Chinese companies involved in building critical government infrastructure. These firms have built or renovated around 186 top government buildings and 14 sensitive governmental telecommunication networks across the African continent, which include a number of presidential palaces, parliaments, and military installations.

If you believe a new survey, Germans are turning to China in the wake of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Younger Germans now prefer China over the United States as an ally, the poll conducted by Kantar Public pollsters for Germany's Koerber Foundation found.

Iran has threatened the United States over its oil shipments to Venezuela. In a letter written to the United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned against "America's movements in deploying its navy to the Caribbean." Tehran believes that action will disrupt its oil supplies to the Latin American country.

Europe witnessed a wave of anti-lockdown protests on Saturday. Germany saw a huge surge in demonstrations. Thousands came out in Berlin, Munich, and Stuttgart against the measures imposed in the wake of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Police used tear gas to disperse protesters in Warsaw, Poland and arrests were made in London's Hyde park, the European media reported.

Pro-democracy demonstrations have returned to Hong Kong as coronavirus lockdown phases out. A big anti-government protest took place at a popular shopping mall on Sunday, where hundreds of riot police showed up to clamp down the protest. The police arrested more than 250 protesters over the weekend, the Hong Kong-based newspaper South China Morning Post reported.

The European Union wants to restart its tourism sector as the spread of coronavirus recedes, a newly released policy document shows. A strategy document compiled by the European Commission, EU's executive arm, titled “Europe needs a break” recommends gradual lifting of border restrictions between member states to promote inner-European travel, the news agency Reuters reported.

Hackers with links to Iran have targeted a U.S. drugmaker working on a potential coronavirus treatment, Reuters news agency reported on Friday. The US drugmaker Gilead Sciences, whose antiviral drug remdesivir has shown promising results in treating coronavirus patients, came repeatedly under cyber attack from servers based in Iran in recent weeks, media reports reveal.

Germany is moving ahead with "bold" measures to phase out the Wuhan coronavirus lockdown, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on Wednesday. The country was "following a bold path" in lifting nationwide restrictions in place for more than seven weeks, she said. The announcement comes as Germany registers a decline in the new cases of coronavirus virus despite the easing of lockdown measures.